References in other media
As Voltron: Defender of the Universe was a popular and distinctive cartoon in the United States during the 1980s, many artists who grew up watching the show have recently started referencing the show in more modern works. Music * Voltron was mentioned in a song by Murphy Lee, Nelly and P. Diddy "Shake Ya Tailfeather" with the line "Come on, you know the 'Tics connect like Voltron" * Voltron is referred to often by the hip-hop group, Wu-Tang Clan. * Voltron is referenced in the song "Funky Voltron" from Edan's 2005 album "The Beauty and the Beat." * Voltron is mentioned in the chorus of a song by the former Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy, entitled "Wizard Needs Food, Badly." The song examines the differences between the sexes by referencing popular culture of the seventies and eighties. * In the song "This D.J." by Warren G, the second verse starts with, "Verse two, (uh-huh), now what the fuck I do? Catch the bus to Cal State, or chill with the Voltron crew." * In the song "I Just Don't Give A FUCK" by Eminem, the second verse contains "This is a lyrical combat, gentlemen hold your pistols/But I form like Voltron, and blast you with my shoulder missiles." * There is a band called Voltron whose lyrics are based around the series, as well as a ska-punk band called Let's Form Voltron. * Ska band, DHGB (Dabe & His Good Buds), make extensive reference of Voltron, most notably in their song "Giant Robots." * In "The Second Coming" by Juelz Santana (used for Nike, Inc.|Nike's "Second Coming" commercial), says "... Together we stand, divided we fall, united we form Voltron and take on all". *Voltron is mentioned in a song by Busta Rhymes, "Everything Remains Raw". Part of the second verse says, "On and on, hey, on and on and on/You won't understand when I form Voltron". * In Chamillionaire's "Mixtape Messiah Pt 2" on the track "Let Em Know" he states, "Got everybody staring at the car components/It look like Voltron with the door don't it?" * In The Moldy Peaches' song "Nothing Came Out" Kimya Dawson sings "I want you to watch cartoons with me; He-Man, Voltron, and Hong Kong Phooey." * There is a grindcore band named Voltron (band) whose lyrics are focused around the series. They have a song ("The End Of Planet Arus") featured on the extras portion of the US volume 3 release. * Voltron is a name of a song recorded by Flo Rida. * Houston band Letters to Voltron maybe a play on alt band Letters to Cleo * Rapper Royce Da 5'9" mentioned Voltron in the 2009 song "Sound Off", referring to him & his groupmates of rap supergroup Slaughterhouse, with the lyric, "We're an outfit/equivalent to Voltron..." Comics * Voltron was featured in the satirical web-based cartoon strip Get Your War On. * In the comic book series Gold Digger (comic book)|Gold Digger, there are regular appearances by a group of Leprechaun heroes called the Vaultron Force. They pilot five mechanical shoes that combine to form the giant robot Vaultron (It's only giant by Leprechaun scale, only being about five feet tall, overall). They are menaced by both a direct parody of Lotor and Haggar, (Oompa Loompas), and their enemies, the Pirate Ninja Leprechauns who have the Gallion. * In the webcomic Sluggy Freelance, main characters Torg and Riff are accidentally teleported to a parallel universe, where they encounter a team of superheroes similar to Gatchaman, who form a Voltron-like robot named Gofotron. * In the webcomic Perry Bible Fellowship, characters who look much like the Voltron characters form a unit called "Guntron" to destroy a giant robot scorpion. At the end of the strip, the blue character is missing, since his contribution to Guntron was the blue bullet that destroyed the scorpion. The next bullet in the chamber is green, and now the green character wears a much more worried expression than in the first panel. (The other three characters form the gun itself and are safe) * In the comic "Ursa Minors" #2, General Kien Lo Mein tries to convince The Bears to hand over the rights to their magical suits in order to employ nanite transformation converting the three Bears into a giant mecha bear. The Bears politely decline, saying "Look, not that we don't appreciate it, but you're preaching Voltron to the uninterested." TV * In a sketch comedy|sketch on Robot Chicken, "You Got Robo-Served", Voltron is forced into a dance competition against a Robeast and loses. Voltron proceeds to kill the Robeast with his sword. Both of the songs danced to (the original "Work It Out on the Floor" and its legally-necessitated replacement) contain references to the cartoon series. A later sketch parodies the Vehicle Voltron trying to rescue a space station under attack, but was too late after the transformation took too long. The surviving commander kills himself, grieved that it wasn't the original Voltron, "just that stupid vehicle one". The episode was called Nutcracker Sweet. * In an episode of Sealab 2021, five mice are placed inside the empty bodies of five Sealab crewmembers, who were now robots. The mice are all wearing Lion Voltron flight suits and shout "GO, MOUSETRON!!" after they are all placed inside. * The Lion Force's combination sequence is constantly playing on monitor screens in the TV show Butt-Ugly Martians. * Voltron was referenced in the VH1 anthology series I Love the '80s 3-D. * A large Voltron toy is shown as a Christmas present during a 1980s-era flashback on Lost. * In an episode of Home Movies, five kids can be seen forming Voltron in the background during the battle between the kids from the Sci-Fi Convention and the kids from the Renaissance Faire. * In the television show, Dexter's Laboratory, Dexter and his family form a Super Robot in order to stop a monster from destroying Tokyo—in order to combine vehicles, Dexter uses a key similar to the one used to initiate the combination for GoLion/Voltron. * In the animated television show Megas XLR (episode 18—"S-Force S.O.S"), a complete parody is done of Voltron, including similar character designs, and differing animal mechs that join together. * In an episode of Taz-Mania, upon readying a trap for Taz, Bull Gator confirms with his partner Axle that all preparations are in order. Axle responds affirmatively and emphatically "Mega Thrusters are GO!" * In the film Vice Versa starring Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage, Judge Reinhold plays with a large size, remote controlled Lion Voltron toy. * Sprite (soft drink)|Sprite used Voltron in a series of hip-hop-themed commercials in 1998. Each of the five lions were piloted by a prominent hip-hop artist or group: Goodie Mob (representing Southern hip-hop) piloted the Blue Lion, Mack 10 (representing West-Coast hip-hop) piloted the Yellow Lion, Fat Joe (representing East-Coast hip-hop) piloted the Green Lion, Common (rapper)|Common (representing Midwest hip-hop) piloted the Red Lion and Afrika Bambaataa (a hip-hop legend and pioneer) rode in the Black Lion with his own pilot. Instead of his trademark Blazing Sword, Voltron uses his "Blazing Mic". Jack Angel reprised his voice role of King Zarkon; There was also an animated character, a teenager named Jamal, who calls for the lions' help to fend of the Robeast in the commercials, and he was voiced by Jazzy Jeff. * In an episode of The Fairly Oddparents called "Smarty Pants", Timmy Turner mentions King Zarkon's name while playing a "Crash Nebula" game. * In the Family Guy episode "No Meals on Wheels", Joe Swanson along with other handicapped people come back to Peter Griffin's restaurant and form "Crippletron" in a manner similar to Voltron. * On X-Play's salute to Boss Characters in video games, Morgan Webb talked about Jo Slade, the fat, lesbian security guard rapist from Dead Rising, saying "she's like if weight, gender, and sexual preference stereotypes formed Voltron and tried to Taser you." * The two X-Play hosts, Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb said that together they form Voltron... a pathetic, one-armed, one-legged Voltron with no torso. * During the episode "Imaginationland" of South Park, Voltron can been seen clearly in the background as one of the imaginary denizens. * In the season 3 episode of Bones titled "Boy in the Time Capsule", psychologist Dr. Sweets talks about childhood icons, and reveals to Seeley Booth|Booth and Temperance Brennan (Bones)|Brennan that he was "very attached to Voltron". * A new series from Robot Chicken creator Seth Green called Titan Maximum parodies the concept of Voltron, with 5 giant robot pilots trying to save Saturn's moon from the evil ex-blue pilot. * In a sketch on Mad, Voltron appears at the robot party. A later sketch features Voltron fighting an octopus without the Yellow Lion, then gets beat up. * A recurring in-series cartoon in the Nick version of Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles is Super Robo Mecha Force Five! which parodies Voltron, along with other Mecha anime such as Mazinger, and Voltes V. Most notable the green pilot Dr. Blip strongly resembles Pidge/Shorty being a short pilot wearing large spectacles. The Team also has a Princess, and the word "Zarkon" is mentioned at one point. * In episode 1 of Voltron: Legendary Defender, Roy Fokker from Robotech (Focker in Macross) can be seen in a coffee shop window. * In episode 1 of Voltron: Legendary Defender, after Lance, Hunk and Pidge are kicked out of the simulator, the next three pilots like very similar to Rick Hunter, Maximilian Sterling and Miriya Parina Sterling from Robotech. (Hikaru Ichijo, Maximilian Jenius and Milia Fallyna Jenus in Macross, respectively.) Miscellaneous * A Gizmodo computer review describes the Itronix GoBook III laptop as looking "like Voltron's underwear." * In the Nintendo GameCube game Gotcha Force, the character Metal Hero is arguably modeled after Voltron, with a helmet resembling that of a lion or tiger, and wielding a "blazing sword." Also, the motions used by Metal Hero to perform his special attack are identical to the motions used by Voltron to summon the Blazing Sword. Voltron is also referenced by the Borg Victory King, who utilizes gatlings fired from his legs. * In the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, the Visions expansion featured robotic Chimera creatures, which added their abilities interchangeably to one another. Though the deck built around the Chimera creatures was never particularly powerful, it was and is still well known as the "Voltron Deck," and the game mechanic from the Chimera as the "Voltron Mechanic." *Voltron was mentioned in a quote by New York Giants Linebacker Lavar Arrington about the potential of the team's defense for the 2006 season: "Voltron still hasn't formed yet... I can only imagine what we will be once we get everybody out there." * In the 2006 Halloween cartoon of Homestar Runner, the character Strong Bad states, "we'll form into a giant robotic Halloween Night-finding space panther!" * The Lion Voltron appears as a playable unit in the Nintendo DS game Super Robot Wars W, under its GoLion name. GoLion's story is slightly changed to allow interaction of the GoLion cast with the other characters included in the game (i.e. Honerva/Haggar offering her service to Dr. Hell of MazinKaiser, King Zarkon's empire forming an alliance with the enemies of GaoGaiGar). * In Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novel Blood Rites, Harry Dresden refers to the merged form of a bunch of flying monkey demons as "Monkey Voltron." (on page 4). * In the opening scene of Hot Rod (film) Dave orders his food under the name "Vultron" because "It's super bad ass." * In an episode of the online machinima series Red vs. Blue, Pvt. Tucker says "Women are like Voltron. The more you can hook up, the better it gets." * Reebok made a line of shoes named "the Voltron Pack" which features 5 designs of Reebok's famous shoes each with its own action figure that can combine to make a large one. * In the 2017 DreamWorks Animation film The Boss Baby, the title character illustrates the "old being replaced with the new" by swapping a stuffed lamb for a Voltron: Defender of the Universe toy. * In the 2016 film Deadpool, Voltron is referenced in two scenes. First one is in an arcade, when Wade wins a limited edition Voltron: Defender of the Universe ring and tells Vanessa "FYI five mini-lion bots come together to form one super-lion bot." The second is towards the end of the film; Wade says "You know, for a second there, it felt like we were three mini lion robots coming together to form one super robot." Category:Media